1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to inventory management. More particularly, the present invention relates to advanced planning and scheduling with respect to inventory embodied as reusable assets in a supply chain. Specifically, the present invention relates to providing an accurate model of a supply chain assets, dwell times, turn times, and using this model to predict asset availability into the future.
2. Background Information
Asset tracking and inventory management are complex components of most modern businesses. The tracking of inventory levels, orders, sales, and deliveries is critical to understanding the global picture of a company's inventory levels. Companies may use inventory management systems to avoid product overstock and outages. However, one critical underlying component of a robust inventory management system is a precise count and location of the inventory itself. Compounding the asset tracking problem is the problem of employee theft, which by some estimates accounts for over 60% of all inventory losses. Therefore, there is a critical need in the art for a system which not only tracks assets by keeping a precise count and location information for each inventory item, but also prevents theft of these assets.
Further, while assets may be embodied in commercial products for ultimate sale to the consumer, assets may also be embodied in reusable containers which are a costly company asset. When assets such as reusable containers are lost or misplaced within the supply chain, it adds additional costs in many ways. Either more containers must be purchased, ultimately oversizing a fleet and reducing effective utilization to undesired levels, or to meet demand, expendable packaging must be purchased, which creates immediate loss. Potentially, the worst cost of all is production stopping as a result of packaging shortages or misallocations of inventory. Therefore, companies desire to keep track of their reusable assets through the entire supply chain process. Further, companies have a critical need to identify loss, pinch points, dwell times, and generate turn analysis, as well as other metrics, such as real-time inventory counts and the location and activity data for all reusable assets. Broadly speaking, there is a critical need in the art for a system which provides an accurate picture of a company's packaging supply chain, inventory, loss, dwells, turns, and utilizations.